Piazza Di Santa Croce

Ticket scan - thanks to Zack

Concert starts: 9pm (doors open 6:30pm)

Address of venue: Piazza Di Santa Croce, 50122, Firenze, Italy. MAP

Website: www.firenze.net

Last night saw the beautiful city of Firenze (Florence) rock to the sound of David Gilmour and his band. A slight change to the set list, with Astronomy Domine obviously a fun track to perform as it made another appearance, to the delight of the fans. Reports are very slow to arrive from this show at the moment, so details are very sketchy at present... Hopefully, once people have caught up with their sleep, we'll be able to bring you plenty of details of the show. In the meantime, our thanks to Leonardo Fallani for confirming the setlist.

One oddity is that due to a technical failure, the first fifteen minutes or so of Echoes featured a very muted light show. Once it was fixed, the visual assault joined the aural one on this magnificent, showstopping track!

The wine glass intro to Shine On took place again, with a regional substitution: Chianti was the wine of choice this time around! The sound that these wineglasses make is quite breathtaking, and let's hope that the eventual tour DVD includes an example for posterity.

Tomorrow night sees the first of two consecutive nights in Venezia, where Pink Floyd famously played on a barge in 1989 to a worldwide audience. There were many complaints at the time due to the noise, the crowds, the rubbish left, and the rumoured damage to the ancient buildings thanks to the volume of the music.

We're sure that David's shows will be a little more restrained, certainly in terms of numbers of people and the logistics. Hopefully the regular flooding of the square will hold off for the shows! If you are going, enjoy it and tell us all about it!

SHOW REVIEW

By BD contributor, Edoardo Bertoletti

Some info on the show:

- At the beginning of Shine On, Gilmour spoke some words in Italian: "abbiamo bisogno di alcuni bicchieri e una o due bottiglie di Chianti...e un po' di silenzio" (translates as: "we need some glasses and one or two bottles of Chianti wine and... some silence"). When Wright played the first part of the song, the other members of the band, around a table, were "playing" some glasses of wine: they put the fingers inside the wine and touched the edge of the glass with a circling movement. The glasses had different levels of wine so they produced different sounds.

- I confirm a partial black out in the middle of Echoes; only Gilmour and Wright were visible by a white spot light (I didn't know if it was intentional!). Everything was right at the albatross section. In any case this song is a monument and the performance really great.

- "Astronomy Domine" was in the set and "Wearing the inside out" too.

- "Fat old sun" was dedicated to Syd Barrett.

- The concert was great; the weather was OK (lucky!), the stage was in front of the church in the elegant Piazza Santa Croce.

SHOW REVIEW

By BD contributor, Enzo Siani

Yesterday I was in Florence for David Gilmour's concert... I was very lucky, because when I walked in Via Verdi, near the Santa Croce's square, I saw Rick and all the members of the band, leaving the press conference! Only David was on stage to do the soundcheck, and he granted us the opportunity to see it before the concert!

The concert started at 9pm with the loud scream of Speak To Me... and after, with a perfect version of Breathe, Time and Breathe reprise.

The voice of David was in better condition than the first concert of the tour in March. After Breathe, David gave us a welcome and started the entire On an Island album, but some tracks are in a different order to the CD. The execution was perfect, the title track absolutely fabulous and all the band had a great night... The live performance of the On an Island album is perfect; I particularly like the instrumental "Then I close my eyes" and also "Take a breath"...

So, at the end of "Were we start" the band left the stage for 15 minutes. David came back with the guys and says in good Italian that for the next track, they needed maximum silence and a bottle of Chianti (Italian wine...) to fill up the glasses that he, Guy Pratt, Steve di Stanislao and Dick Parry, used to play the intro on Shine On You Crazy Diamond! And what a dream: David played his personal version of Shine On in a brilliant way!!

The show continues with a disowned track from Division Bell "Wearing the inside out..." (but I like it very much..) with Richard on vocals. And, obviously, a thought to the late Syd Barrett, with a powerful version of Astronomy Domine featuring an incredible light show! I'd never seen anything to compare with a similar light show!

At the end of Astronomy, David took up the acoustic guitar to play one of my favourite songs, Fat Old Sun. No words to describe its execution... and it's the same for Coming Back To Life and High Hopes. A day later and I still haven't the words to describe these moments!!!

And... Echoes! 25 minutes of an incredible execution by David and Richard. With an initial problem with the lights: there was a blackout for two minutes, but after it finished, I was totally upset!

There then followed a break, with a standing ovation of more than five minutes.

And in conclusion: Wish You Were Here and Comfortably Numb! No words to describe the moment when David start to sing "There is no pain..." and when he started the final solo, with the lasers that illuminated all the Santa Croce's square!!

Two words.............FANTASTIC SHOW!!!

SHOW REVIEW

By BD contributor, Jamie Donald

Almost a week on, I still find it very difficult to put into words my whole experience of this day. What started as a simple trip to Florence turned into an adventure I'll never forget. To get there everything that could go wrong for us did actually go wrong, until an hour before the concert. We made our way into the square and looked for our seats and at this point our luck changed completely. We were in total shock when we realised our seats where dead on centre three rows back from the stage. At the time the finishing touches where being carried out to the lighting on stage and this for me was a first time opportunity to take a real life look at the stage setup with the endless amounts of equipment on view.

The setting for this could not have been better for it was a nice day outside and this combined with the beautiful city of Florence made it very special.

The show started with the stage being engulfed in fog and the infamous sound of the heartbeat from "The dark side of the moon". When the first chord of "Breath" was heard and the band members became visible through the fog, my partner immediately began to cry. The emotion for us at this point was totally undescribeable. I had hairs standing up on my neck at this moment and throughout the entire concert.

I simply have to point out that the quality of the sound was the best I have ever heard, every instrument and vocal sound was amazingly clear and powerful. The sound of David's guitar playing was breathtaking with a completely unique voice of it's own.

After a flawless performance of "Breath" and "Time" were played, I was then again amazed to find that David played his entire new album live. The so many different styles of these songs really did display the great talents of David and the band. The playing of the guitar solo from "On an Island" was amazing. You could clearly see just how personal this music is and it showed that he really enjoyed performing it.

After a 15min break we was then presented with a very unusual but astounding performance of "Shine on you crazy diamond". The sound of the opening string chords to this were created entirely from the rim of several wine glasses containing the precise amounts of wine to make the chords. Richard played the opening keyboard solo to this and it was really moving to see and participate in how the crowed showed so much appreciation for his performance. The song then continued with a flawless performance by Dave in his own style and the amazing Dick Parry put forward a fantastic performance at the end on the saxophone.

"Wearing the inside out" was played next and again it was a fantastic performance by Richard with which great appreciation was shown by everyone followed by brilliant performances of "Astronomy domine" and "Fat old sun".

For the next song I heard the opening chord from Richard's keyboard, could it really be that he was going to play "Coming back to life". The first few notes from the guitar proved it was, and this was an unforgettable performance. This song means a lot to me on so many levels and to hear it played live was something else altogether for this song first inspired me to learn to play the guitar more than 11 years ago. I always love the way Dave ad-lib's on this every time he plays it. The second solo, Dave managed to blast out one his best pieces of playing I've ever heard for this song, I can still hear it now.

It was great to hear "High Hopes" played next, the performance was fantastic yet again. This was followed by a performance of "Echoes" that was just truly amazing.

After great applause the they came back on for a timeless performance of "Wish you were here" that everyone song along to, the atmosphere was great. I was hoping so much that "Comfortably numb" would be next and it was. I have always wanted to hear this live and it was well worth the wait of so many years. I felt completely overwhelmed with tears in my eyes all the way through.

I've been to many gigs but this was not just live music, it was so much more. This for me was life changing. It sounds crazy but It's made me realise how much music is important to me. After contacting an old friend of mine (who is a great keyboardist) shortly after the concert and explaining my whole experience to him, he was so inspired he proposed that we get it together to pursue our music and see just where it might lead to.

To sum it all up, a very moving experience.

SHOW REVIEW

By BD contributor, Jeff Ramm

Just back this evening from an extended break to Florence and thought I should write a few lines for my second review...

Firstly on a down note, we were out taking in the sights and smells of old town Florence, window shopping and wandering aimlessly when we walked past the Savoy Hotel then I mentioned to my other half, "see that bloke sitting at that table, that's Mike Rutherford of Genesis", "oh yes I`ve heard of him, but isn`t the other man at that table David Gilmour with his wife?". "FU8K me so it is and I never noticed" said I. Well, as they were eating a rather nice pasta dish, and if it were me not really wanting to be interrupted while I was eating, we left them to it, but we could not believe our luck seeing the ONE and ONLY close up.

We decided to have a cool beer opposite in GILLI cafe, from here we saw the comings and goings of a couple of people to their table, everyone laughing and joking, one of them Mr Guy Pratt. While sitting in GILLI we noticed that there was a suited person hovering nearby the entrance to the cafe, which I thought could be security, but my other half being braver than me asked and he only happened to be the manager of GILLI, Roberto, with 3 tickets in hand for that evenings show, was after an autograph for his copy of Pulse DVD, and was waiting also for an opportune moment. When the three of us noticed that they were getting up to go we made our way over and my braver other half asked, "would it be possible for a photo please David" from which we had a stern "NO photographs!" reply and duly walked off into the Savoy.

Well being a fan for 25+ years, having every album, cd, re-issue cd, anniversary cd`s, video`s, DVD`s, magazines, T-shirts, books, concerts ticket stubs, etc...etc this wasn`t the reply I had bargained for and my other half quite taken aback by the sharpness of reply, YES I know he had a concert that night and has other things on his mind but COME ON its not much to ask is it? Maybe a handshake and a photo, and as for Roberto, who happens to be friends with the people at the Savoy, managed to get into the foyer and to the lifts with the Mr Gilmour`s and his security, yes he got a handshake but NO autograph.

Then when walking back from the show to our hotel we passed the Savoy again and who was already at his balcony, laughing and joking again, overlooking the Piazza del Repubblica, Yes you`ve guessed it. Cheers!

I would like to take this opportunity to recommend and say a MASSIVE THANK YOU to Roberto for his kindness and hospitality during our 2 visits to GILLI a superb cafe and when we return I shall be buying the drinks.

We again saw Mr Gilmour and Co at Santa Croce in Florence, our THIRD visit to the shows of this tour, Le Grand Rex and RAH on the 29th being the others, and a very fine show it was too but for a couple of problems, one:- the terrible seating arrangements, we were sat in 3rd category seating Row 67 seats 57and 59, all the seats being on the same level in the centre of the piazza, (each side and rear being tiered) what was that all about? everyone kept standing up cos they could not see and then officials would come, they would have a row, then sit down, then stand back up when the officials went, very annoying.

Then one of my favourites, Echoes, which lends itself well to a light show, as previously seen, was left stranded without any lights for much of it, still sounded superb though. I think there were four stand out songs: Fat Old Sun, Echoes, Comfy Numb and SOYCD. David's voice sounded very good but I think that Rick's could do with some help and there seemed more improvisation, which is great.

The whole show sounded great really, as ever, I`m being picky and I would not get bored going to these concerts every night. See you all again next time in Florence or Paris or RAH or RFH or who knows where.